NASA Daily News Summary For Release: Mar. 3, 2000 Media Advisory m00-42 SUMMARY NEWS RELEASES: NEW LAB READY TO TEST SUDDEN IMPACTS VIDEO: Video File: ITEM 1 - NASA GLENN RESEARCH CENTER'S BALLISTICS LAB - GRC ITEM 2 - SEAWIFE IMAGE: STORMS FLOOD MOZAMBIQUE - GSFC (replay) ITEM 3 - CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY IMAGE OF GALAXY CLUSTER ABELL 2142 - MSFC (replay) ITEM 4 - CHANDRA X-RAY TELESCOPE OPERATIONS UPDATE - MSFC (replay) ITEM 5 - HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE TAKES A CLOSE-UP VIEW OF A REFLECTION NEBULA IN ORION - STSCI (replay) ITEM 6 - MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES "GIANT'S FOOTPRINT" - MSSS (replay) ------------------------ Live Television Events Next Week: March 7, Tuesday 1:00 - 2:00 pm - Live From the Storm: The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of Weather - GSFC (switch to NTV from TELSTAR 5, 97 degrees West Ku band, transponder 25. Downlink polarization: Vertical. Frequency: 12144.0 MHz Audio 6.2 and 6.8 ) 5:00 - 7:00 pm - KC-135 Student Campaign Live News Interviews - JSC March 9, Thursday 5:00 - 7:00 pm - KC-135 Student Campaign Live News Interviews - JSC 1:00 pm - Backside of the Sun Space Science Update - HQ March 10, Thursday 5:00 - 11:30 am - Latest Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Images Live News Interviews - GSFC March 11, Saturday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm - Kennedy Space Center Southeast Regional First Robotics Competition - KSC ***************************** NEWS RELEASES: NEW LAB READY TO TEST SUDDEN IMPACTS The last time government cannon boomed across the shores of Lake Erie was during the War of 1812, but a new laboratory at NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH, is now experimenting with ballistics of a different kind. Building 49 houses Glenn's new ballistic impact facility. Its main features are a 40-foot-long gas gun that can eject projectiles at speeds up to 1,500 feet per second, or over 1,000 mph, and a high-speed camera that can capture 2.5 million images per second. One of the facility's main tasks is testing materials for aircraft engine housings. During rare in-flight events, if the engine is hit by hail or birds, the engine housing must contain any fragments and withstand the severe loads, or forces, that otherwise could cause the engine to separate from the wing of the airplane. Current engine housing materials, usually high-strength metal alloys and non-metal ballistic fabrics, do this job very well but are very heavy. The new, lighter structures being considered for this duty must be evaluated for their ability to withstand such catastrophic events. Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Michael Braukus (Phone 202/358-1979). Contact at NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH: Pam Caswell (Phone 216/433-5795). For full text, see: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-034.txt ----------------------------- If NASA issues any news releases later today, we will e- mail summaries and Internet URLs to this list. Index of 2000 NASA News Releases: http://www.nasa.gov/releases/2000/index.html Index of 1999 NASA News Releases: http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1999/index.html ***************************** VIDEO: Unless otherwise noted, ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN. ANY CHANGES TO THE VIDEO LINE-UP WILL APPEAR ON THE NASA VIDEO FILE ADVISORY ON THE WEB AT ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt WE UPDATE THE ADVISORY THROUGHOUT THE DAY. The NASA Video File normally airs at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight Eastern Time. NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0 megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz. Refer general questions about the video file to NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Ray Castillo, 202/358-4555, or Fred Brown, 202/358-0713, fred.brown@hq.nasa.gov During Space Shuttle missions, the full NASA TV schedule will continue to be posted at: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html For general information about NASA TV see: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/ ***************************** Contract Awards Contract awards are posted to the NASA Acquisition information Service Web site: http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html ***************************** The NASA Daily News Summary is issued each business day at approximately 2 p.m. Eastern time. Members of the media who wish to subscribe or unsubscribe from this list, please send e-mail message to: Brian.Dunbar@hq.nasa.gov ***************************** end of daily news summary